OT - A rose by any other name...

Ok...correction black as the midnight hour... we have all different shades in my family light bright and damn near white and black as tar.....but you know what? One of my brothers is tall dark and very handsome...but he has native american features...broad pointy nose and thin lips..and those of us that are lighter have more negroid features like me...full lips, hips and butts.......I have nothing gainst men that are black as tar....apparently they are most wanted and much in style these days by women coz when I was dating trying to find a tall dark single and handsome brotha it was just like hitting the lotto

I'm bi-racial; my preference is Black, but I understand African-American as a mainstream PC reference and am okay with that in general. 

I use to get far more upset with the term 'colored' until I met the elderly grandma of my friend, many years ago.  She made that reference in my presence, and noticed my reaction to it.  We had a long discussion of how she was taught and having lived in rural Georgia her growing up years, colored was the better choice of the wording she was exposed to.   She was very interested in the perspective of my family's experiences.  She profusely apologized for having used the term colored, and vowed to never use it again, explaining how she was taught many things in error, but as she lived & learned, she made corrections in her life based on better information as opposed to the ingorance she was raised on. 

She said she never understood the hostility of her family towards anyone outside themselves.    She shared that she observed family member afer family member miss opportunities to know some great people by holding those hostilities.  She made a conscious choice NOT to raise her kids with that negativity.  I got to know her well, and we were friends until she died. 

She taught me the real-world meaning of "once you know better, you do better" in the sense of not only the use of words, but in actions. 

I have a great deal of respect for people who self-reflect and course correct as they identify change-worthy behavior; I apply this in my own life daily. 

I'm bi-racial also.  Thanks to WLS I'm now half-fat and half-skinny!

...you said that all ready!

Really?


                                                         hmmm....


Well then I'm now tri-racial because I'm one-third forgetful as hell it appears.   I think.

I identify as black.  Technically I'm tri-racial.  Both of my Grandma's identified more as Native American but since they lived in the black community and married men who were black or mixed race their kids identified as black. I always thought their stories were suspect and had a genetic DNA test done. You know the typical "I got Indian in my family" story to explain long hair or high cheekbones.  My percentage of NA ancestry was high enough that everything was true. 

I use african american if that is the only option.  I'm kind of careful of that because I'm not African and Africans will have no problem telling you that you have a different culture. 

Who or what company did you use for your dna test?

I did the AncestrybyDNA 2.5 test.  That particular company went out of business earlier this year.  I think they lost a lot of business once other companies started doing a similar test and a bunch of others.  That test is kind of static in that your results shouldn't ever change.  The other companies are making big bucks doing tests where the results keep changing as new populations in the world are tested.

I used FamilyTreeDNA for my maternal ancestry test.  It indicated that my maternal ancestry originated in Mozambique.  Now this is through the grandmother who identified as Native American.  She got her African ancestry via her mother.  Her father was NA.  The US government did not recognize NA's as Indian if they did not go on the Trail of Tears.  I should have believed my grandmother's because they knew their tribal affiliations. 

Ok, thanks, I'll look into that.

I sadly enough I would check off other..since you barely find a Caribbean American option.

Well technically in the sense of the word I am black and/or colored.But like I said in the sense of the word.Even though black is not a color ..But I would not go into that.
I don't mind being called African-American..it does not make a difference or sense to me.I have yet found proof that  I am African American.

Being that both of my parents are from Trinidad and Tobago.....but since most people are like "Trinidad and whaaat" I would check off other for now.

But when it boils down to it I am human..So lets me check off that little other box and write human right in there :-)